Schmidt & Cohen: Will North Korea Open to the Web?

4/18/2013 10:08PM

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen preview their essay in Saturday's Wall Street Journal on their observations during a recent trip to North Korea. In this excerpt from an interview with WSJ's John Bussey, they discuss whether the country can allow some access to the Internet.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... BD of argument that you ... you make is running also was that ... which is said to the North Korea's was what you want them to win the economic curve upward ... you've got to reduce resistance to the internet ... if that's actually sort of ... what's on the money somehow it still Ruby on doubling its just not possible to have a modern country without access to the internet ... there's just no way there's too much information is too much electronic commerce system of pricing signals ... it's how the banking system works now ... it so many political ideas improvements for societies ... every country ... with exception North Korea ... has embraced the internet at least in some limited form ... and in a more open way the north the idea that they probably get that ... they get that are going well again we don't know what we do know is that this is a country that man is to go through a famine of craps two million people in its own power and ... so does something else at work here ... it's different from the other countries ... and ... from our perspective the most important in the week to do and I think this is true for American foreign policy as well ... is get the country society to open up with new ideas ... to design new ideas will bring on new ideas about governance to ideas about business and perhaps less of a threat level to the US right that was in your presumption a little dated soda making the suggestion that the North Koreans that ... really economic growth is what ... is ... partner ... I in their interest ... with at Hollywood's Armory is the leadership saying in power ... yes although it's very clear in and cover patients that we had never thought you'd agree with this that they recognize they have to open up a tiny ... across ... they're trying to figure out ... how to do it's interesting is the info Chinese bubble was to Democratic ... aam but they're trying to figure out how to do this is only as possible without a lot of questions ... on Yemen and in some of them are are quite technical but it didn't face a conundrum in the sense that ... they know they have to open up a little bit but also the same time ... no population in any country anywhere in the world is worse off ... it makes sense that I'm a third term government will want to have the internet on its terms ... it makes sense that in the third term government say will we wanted the part of the Internet that we like but we don't want all these other ideas this free speech to a new tool for threats of course all of us feel very strongly about right ... we believe that if you get a little the divinity and ... they have to accept a little bit of openness ... that that it's just the tip of the spear ... to open up the society's as fundamental as humans are the same everywhere ... the curious when they come up with a new idea is a well that's interesting did you hear about it and I were excited about it yet and all the sudden something changes ... and that sets in